Hitchcock at his Height

Vertigo (1958) stars James Stewart as John Ferguson, known as Scottie to his acquaintances, a retired San Francisco detective. Scottie retired from the force after a rooftop scene in which a colleague of his died, the trauma and guilt leaving Scottie with a bad case of vertigo. A man of independent means, he spends his days doing next to nothing but chatting away the hours with his best mate and former date, Midge.

Scottie is brought out of his half-life by old friend Gavin Estler, who asks Scottie to trail his suicidal wife Madeleine, played by Kim Novak. Madeleine has been acting extremely strangely for some time, and often disappears for hours on end. Estler believes her behaviour to have a supernatural base, and is afraid she will kill herself. Scottie agrees to follow Madeleine, partly because Estler is an old friend, and partly to disprove Estler's supernatural suspicions.

As Scottie follows Madeleine on her eerie journeys, he becomes personally, romantically and psychologically drawn to her to the point of obsession. Rescuing her from the water of San Francisco bay, he seizes the opportunity to take her back to his own home and make her better. As the mystery of Madeleine's mental illness deepens, Scottie and Madeleine fall in love and begin a passionate affair.

I cannot say any more about the plot without giving away the film's greatest strengths, i.e. it's complexity, mystery and suspense. Vertigo is one of Hitchcock's most suspenseful movies, and we are kept hooked throughout. Will Madeleine and Scottie be discovered? Will Scottie manage to keep Madeleine alive? At times it really is edge-of-the-seat stuff, while at other times we are immersed in trying to figure out for ourselves just what is going on in Madeleine's psyche.

When watching any Hitchcock film, it is important to remember the time in which it was made. Things we now take for granted in our movies were pioneered by Hitchcock and have since evolved, making the originals seem dated. Try and put yourself back in time, though, and you can really appreciate the director's pioneering spirit and technique.

Performances in Vertigo are superb. Stewart, a Hitchcock stalwart, is terrific as the traumatized Scottie, and Barbara bel Geddes as his witty, intelligent and overlooked friend Midge is a delight. Novak as Madeleine seems rather melodramatic now, but watched in context she is excellent. The archetypal Hitchcock icy-blonde, she is brilliantly alluring and enigmatic.

Photography and camera-work are also superb. The San Francisco locations are utilised to their full extent, making the film an architectural and scenic feast of glorious Technicolor. The camera also works very cleverly to show us Scottie's fear of heights and resultant vertigo, viewing stairwells and streets from above, skewing our perspective and sending us spinning like Scottie's perception.

Hitchcock uses colour for all it's worth in Vertigo, covering the screen in red and blue filters to portray the inflamed state of Scottie's sensibilities, and projecting his spinning head against a psychedelic cartoon-like background to indicate his confusion and nightmares. Though this can be somewhat jarring, and in places rather funny, it is again quite wonderfully nutty if viewed in context of the cinematic world of its time.

Vertigo bears all the traits of a Hitchcock classic: a man with a past, an alluring icy blonde, a complex mystery, a psychological enigma and a passionate obsession. It also has the obligatory cameo by Hitch himself, though I'll leave it to you to spot him!

Extras on the Columbia Tristar DVD include Production Notes, Cast and Filmmaker's Notes, the original theatrical trailer and a 29 minute feature entitled 'Obsessed with Vertigo' where we learn the fascinating story of the labour of love that was the original film's restoration by two real Hitch fans.